To say that I had found myself bit of a crossroads at age thirty would be a massive understatement. Having just left treatment for both addiction and depression, my musical future was uncertain. I had isolated myself from not just my family and friends but many of my musical collaborators as well.

I've been making music since I was fifteen years old, first behind the drum kit in high school jazz band, working my way over to guitar and then finally keyboards in various 'indie rock' outfits in high school and college. I've played in nearly every style, from the rustic pop-country of Waller to the high-energy, house-influenced Kid Stuff to the psychedelically controlled chaos of Hello Ocho. But songwriting has always been my true passion--the crafting, the arranging, the translation of raw emotion into art--and the idea of a record of my very own had always eluded me. There was just never enough time, never enough motivation. The short-lived Big Tent Revival Party was a solid first attempt to hone sincere, maximalist pop, but it was difficult to keep eight other musicians on the same schedule. Song Week, a recording collaboration with other songwriters, gave me an outlet for my evolving solo material, but by that point my obsession with excess had all but taken over.

And so 2015 opened with me very much on my own, having retreated to the suburbs and residing in structured living. I had little to my name or my spirit, other than my Yamaha keyboard and a used laptop with a copy of Fruity Loops programming software. With a clearer mind and a renewed sense of self, I began developing the blueprints of the songs that would make up my very first solo album. I wanted to use this opportunity of isolation to write a very personal record that captured both the sounds in my brain and the emotions in my heart. Something I could put my own name on. By the fall, I had eight inspired, concrete ideas, all laid out in the clicks, bleeps and glitches of MIDI.

My aspirations for this record didn't start high. I wanted the laptop demos to sound like just that. A songwriter striking out on his own, figuring it out. I was just happy that the album could exist in any form at all, after surviving the storm of substance abuse I inflicted on myself and the people who loved me. After adding a handful of guitar and drum tracks with the help of the talented Eric Jennings, I reconnected with Song Week collaborator and great friend Mitchell Hardage, asking him to help fill out the album's sound with bass guitar (an instrument not particularly in my skill set). Mitchell had other ideas for this record. He felt like the songs needed the touch of a real drummer, the warmth of real keyboards, the soul of real musicians. It was a proposition that was difficult to argue against. We had the time and resources to bring these songs to life, so why not?

And so Thank You For Sharing was slowly but methodically realized over six months, with Mitchell and I using our free Sundays to replace the bleeps and clicks of the laptop demos with live-tracked instrumentation. Gus Fernandez from Pony League added drums on the songs that were too sophisticated for my hands. Jennifer Zuiff, among others, sang some tremendous harmonies. I wrote string and horn charts for five of the songs and found the talented musicians to perform them, adding some elaborate arrangements to these quirky little pop songs.

Where you come in

After taking this record from humble electronic skeletons to full-blown technicolor productions, Mitchell and I are ready to take the next huge step. Just as the songs deserved to be performed instead of programmed, Thank You For Sharing deserves to be mixed and mastered by industry professionals. But the post-production on an album of this nature is far from cheap. And if we want this record to reach its full sonic potential, we'll have to keep thinking big. This means that Mitchell and I will need:

The songs professionally mixed (about $2,200)



The album professionally mastered (about $1,200)

The session musicians properly compensated (about $900)

This way Thank You For Sharing will sound its very best and brightest. The time-consuming process of recording is complete, and now the post-production costs are the only thing holding this record back. Significant contributions will receive significant rewards, including a free copy of the album, unreleased tracks and much more! Each contributor will also be thanked graciously in the album's liner notes.

But wait, there could be more!

If you guys are exceptionally generous and we reach our goal of $4,500 with time to spare, we could take Thank You For Sharing to an even higher level with further contributions. What does that mean?

It means that a STRETCH GOAL of $5,800, if met, will allow us to get Thank You For Sharing pressed on vinyl. Having this album preserved in record form would take this dream come true even further. Those who contribute $100 or more would receive a free copy of the album on vinyl if this stretch goal was met!